I took over a team for an outed alias. I am up against the cap with a pretty weak team and horrible fielding. So I started an experiment in order to get a DH bat into the line-up. Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Frank Nieve is playing RF. Thru 218 innings, he has 1 error, 2 negative plays, 1 assist and a 1.28 RF. Extrapolated out to a full season, he'd finish with 7 errors, 13 negative plays, 7 assists and produce 207 put outs.

Short version: DH with 6 range and 24 glove(arms are close enough) would have 5 less errors, 13 more negative plays, 5 less assists, 6 less positive plays and 30 less put outs than a 73 range/69 glove out in RF. I'd feel comfortable throwing out the errors from the equation but, because he can't get to as many balls, maybe it's about right.

Is it possible your pitching is being hurt beyond what you see in the fielding stats? I guess I mean +/- type plays, but are we sure all of those get accounted for? It just feels wrong to put a guy with 6 range in the OF and not have it blow up in your face.

It's possible but that's why I included put outs. I've found that higher range players, at all positions, have a higher RF. That's true in this case. Nieve, in addition to making errors/negative plays, was also getting to one less ball every 5 games than Carter. So, in my mind, he's giving up an extra hit every 5 games because a ball not caught or kicked is a hit.

Small sample size is also possible but, quite honestly, the best RF is going to make less than 2 plays per game. The top 10 in most leagues I've checked have a range factor between 1.6 and 1.7. If you can stick a 6 range DH out there and have him make 1.25 with 20ish errors/negative plays, you're not losing much. Less than half a play per game difference between a DH and a GG candidate isn't much. Obviously, you'd rather have a GG candidate and a Silver Slugger out there but, if you can't have both, it's a really good place to skimp on D.

Assuming, of course, that what's happening with Nieve is what would happen over several seasons.

I played T.J. McIntosh (10-21-65-67) in RF many moons ago, acting on a hunch and having a need at that position, and came up with similar numbers: 184 innings, 21 PO, 1 assist, 1 error, 0 (+), 2 (-), .957 F%, 1.08 RF.

I am definitely going to reconsider where I play catchers with deficient PC.